Britain opens an investigation into Jeff Zucker’s Emirati-backed bid for The Telegraph

The vessel for Mr. Zucker’s bid is RedBird IMI, the media venture company he founded last year as a joint venture between RedBird Capital, a U.S. private equity firm, and International Media Investments, an Abu Dhabi-based investment fund. In a maneuver that caught rivals off guard, RedBird IMI said it would immediately pay off the debts of The Telegraph’s owners, short-circuiting an open auction for the publications that was already underway.

If Mr. Zucker’s efforts are ultimately blocked by regulators, the auction will resume, giving his competitors a second chance to secure control.

Mr. Zucker, 58, was forced to leave CNN last year after failing to disclose a relationship with a colleague. A highly visible media figure for decades, Mr. Zucker became a political lightning rod because of his complex history with former President Donald J. Trump. In 2003, as president of NBC, he greenlit Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” turning the real estate developer into a national sensation. On CNN, Mr. Zucker broadcast hours of unfiltered coverage of Mr. Trump’s early campaign rallies; after Mr. Trump became president, CNN was attacked by conservatives for what they perceived as an anti-Trump bias.

Britons unfamiliar with Mr Zucker’s record got a crash course this week in the pages of London newspapers, which have captured every twist and turn of The Telegraph saga with their characteristic irreverence. The Telegraph’s own lengthy interview noted Mr. Zucker’s attitude of “great insolence,” and the newspaper illustrated the article with a giant photo of Mr. Zucker grinning next to Mr. Trump and his wife Melania, taken during his NBC days.

If the deal with The Telegraph closes, Mr. Zucker, who lives in Manhattan and enjoys being part of the news business, said it is unlikely he would handle day-to-day editorial matters. But he would oversee The Telegraph’s financial strategy, including a possible expansion into the United States, where Zucker said he sees a market “for a truly center-right media outlet.”

“If you have a brand that has the journalistic integrity of The Telegraph and the energy that British media has, which is really lacking in the United States, then I think it’s a good combination,” he told The Telegraph.